Home Health I’m an oncologist…this is what I was wrong about the disease until I was diagnosed

I’m an oncologist…this is what I was wrong about the disease until I was diagnosed

0 comments
Dr. Catherine Sue Hwang (pictured) was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 46. She has revealed how it has affected her way of treating patients.

Dr. Catherine Sue Hwang had treated dozens of breast cancer patients and felt she knew everything there was about the disease.

So it came as a complete shock when, despite having no symptoms or family history of the disease, a routine mammogram found five masses in her right breast.

The 46-year-old woman from Florida went from being a radiation oncologist at a leading Breast Radiation Oncology center in Orlando to being one of their patients.

She had both breasts removed, several rounds of chemotherapy, radiation, and then more surgery to remove her uterus and ovaries to combat the disease.

She was forced to battle hair loss, hot flashes and weight gain she couldn’t overcome, struggling after being told she had a 15 per cent chance of not surviving until 2035.

Now, Dr Hwang has revealed how being a patient, rather than a doctor, has revealed that much of the advice doctors give to patients can be “insensitive” and has made her feel guilty.

One example he gave was the advice doctors give telling cancer patients to shave their heads to feel like they are “in control” of the disease.

He said this was just one of many things doctors should reconsider and tell patients.

Dr. Catherine Sue Hwang (pictured) was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 46. She has revealed how it has affected her way of treating patients.

Dr. Hwang shared her journey with the disease on Instagram

She has spoken about how she was treated for the disease.

Dr. Hwang, who shared her cancer journey on Instagram, appears in the photo above in two reels where she talks about her treatment for the disease.

Write a guest essay for the HuffPostsaid: ‘I spent the last 15 years of my life as a radiation oncologist and considered myself a cancer expert.

“(But) by being in the arena and fighting this terrible disease as a patient, I have become a more effective doctor who does not lose sight of the humanity of the patients.”

Using the advice to shave your head as an example, he said: “As a doctor, I encouraged patients to shave their heads to regain control,” he wrote, “as a patient (however), I never dared to do it.” ‘.

“Despite looking ridiculous with a huge bald spot, I found comfort in keeping the hair that was left on my head, as it represented the person whose pre-cancer it was, a person I wasn’t sure I would find again.”

He also told how he had previously “judged” women who had refused chemotherapy to preserve their hair, thinking they were preserving vanity about their own lives.

But now he said he understood his position.

“The temporary loss of my hair affected my self-esteem more than the permanent loss of my breasts,” she said.

“As someone who was always known for having amazing hair, I struggled a lot.”

He also criticized diet plans he had previously given to breast cancer patients struggling with weight gain.

Breast cancer treatment can trigger menopause because it causes changes in hormone levels, the side effect of which is weight gain.

Dr. Hwang appears mid-treatment

And during treatment after a lot of hair had fallen out.

Dr. Hwang said one of the main effects of her treatment was her hair loss (pictured).

She is shown above in an online reel to raise awareness about the risks of breast cancer.

She is shown above in an online reel to raise awareness about the risks of breast cancer.

She is shown above in an online reel to raise awareness about the risks of breast cancer.

Dr. Hwang, who is 5 feet 8 inches tall, gained 10 pounds during her treatment, an amount she found impossible to change despite following the diet plan she had given patients.

“I now understood my patients’ frustrations and felt extremely guilty for blaming them when they weren’t seeing results,” she said.

Dr. Hwang also wrote about how she had previously ruled out low-risk cancer patients who were worried about dying, often telling them that they probably would not die or that their cancer, if it returned, would be detected through routine scans.

But when his own diagnosis came and he was given an 85 percent chance of surviving in the next ten years, he said that (with three children) that chance wasn’t nearly high enough.

“The insensitivity of previous comments I have made to patients became apparent,” he said.

“Even though I didn’t have a low-risk disease, I can now relate to that desire to exhaust every option to get the best possible outcome because cancer is scary.”

Dr. Hwang was diagnosed with breast cancer last year following a routine mammogram and ultrasound, with mammograms recommended every two years for women ages 40 to 75.

She was first treated with a bilateral mastectomy, or operation to remove both breasts, which doctors said would likely be the end.

But later, it was learned that his cancer appeared to have spread, and so Dr. Hwang received chemotherapy and radiation.

Two weeks after her mastectomies, she returned to work, following the advice she would give her patients that they should return to their routines to try to manage mental concerns about the diagnosis.

She then had her uterus and ovaries removed to help control her symptoms and will now receive maintenance treatment for 15 years. His cancer is now in remission.

Dr. Hwang works at AdventHealth Cancer Institute in Orlando.

About 272,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the US each year, a figure that has increased about one percent annually since 2012, even as deaths have decreased and an estimated 42,000 were caused this year.

Doctors have attributed the rising rates to a number of factors, from increasing overweight women to exposure to pesticides.

Most patients are diagnosed with cancer at stage one or two, where it is easier to treat as it has not spread and around 93 per cent live more than five years.

Women are recommended to have mammograms every two years from ages 40 to 74 to detect breast cancer cells.

You may also like